1,720,974 research outputs found

    Bengaluru's dairy production systems (Survey data)

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    Data from 337 interviews of dairy producers from the Rural-Urban Interface of Bengaluru, India, done in 201

    Dairy production in an urbanizing environment-Typology and linkages in the megacity of Bengaluru, India

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    Urbanization is a main driver of agricultural transition in the Global South but how it shapes trends of intensification or extensification is not yet well understood. The Indian megacity of Bengaluru combines rapid urbanization with a high demand for dairy products, which is partly supplied by urban and peri-urban dairy producers. To study the impacts of urbanization on dairy production and to identify key features of dairy production systems across Bengaluru's rural-urban interface, 337 dairy producers were surveyed on the socio-economic profile of their household, their dairy herd and management, resources availability and, in- and output markets. A two-step cluster analysis identified four spatially explicit dairy production systems based on urbanization level of their neighborhood, reliance on self-cultivated forages, pasture use, cattle in- and outflow and share of specialized dairy genotypes. The most extensive dairy production system, common to the whole rural-urban interface, utilized publicly available feed resources and pasture grounds rather than to cultivate forages. In rural areas, two semi-intensive and one intensive dairy production systems relying on self-cultivation of forage with or without pasture further distinguished themselves by their herd and breeding management. In rural areas, the village's dairy cooperative, which also provided access to inputs such as exotic genotype through artificial insemination, concentrate feeds and health care, was often the only marketing channel available to dairy producers, irrespective of the dairy production system to which they belonged. In urban areas, milk was mostly sold through direct marketing or a middleman. Despite rapidly progressing urbanization and a population of 10 million, Bengaluru's dairy sector still relies on small-scale family dairy farms. Shifts in resources availability, such as land and labor, are potential drivers of market-oriented intensification but also extensification of dairy production in an urbanizing environment.Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 202

    Impacts of COVID-19 on Small-Scale Dairy Enterprises in an Indian Megacity—Insights from Greater Bengaluru

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    Natural calamities and pandemics massively affect small-scale entrepreneurs. In this paper, we aim to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic affected small dairy farms in the megacity of Bengaluru, India, where they supply a high share of the milk demand. In 2020 a total of 129 farms were visited before the first lockdown (January to March) and interviewed again after the lockdown had been loosened (August to September). Questions addressed feed supply to dairy cows, milk yield and marketing, and coping strategies for lockdown impacts. Results showed that the share of farmers not feeding concentrates increased from 1% before lockdown to 7% afterward (p < 0.05), and those not offering dry forages increased from 20% to 33% (p < 0.05) due to increasing forage prices. Milk yield dropped in all surveyed farms from 3905 L before to 2861 L after lockdown (p < 0.05) due to the sale of 30% of lactating cows across the farms. Enabling farmers to better cope with shocks through feed storage and by processing their surplus milk into durable products should be prioritised by supporting institutions such as dairy cooperatives. Alternatively, insurance schemes can capacitate farmers to maintain a fresh milk supply to urban consumers in the wake of global challenges

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Phenotypic Dairy Cattle Trait Expressions in Dependency of Social-Ecological Characteristics along Rural–Urban Gradients

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    The aim of the present study was to infer phenotypic trait expressions via mixed modeling considering both social and ecological continuous descriptors simultaneously. In this regard, we selected a challenging heterogeneous social-ecological environment, with focus on the rising megacity Bangalore, located in southern India. Dairy traits from 517 dairy cattle were recorded in 121 herds, equally distributed along a southern and a northern rural–urban gradient of Bangalore, distinguishing between urban, mixed, and rural areas. Repeated records from three visits per herd included production traits (daily milk yield in liter: MY), energy efficiency indicators (body condition score: BCS), cow wellbeing indicators (udder hygiene score: UddHS, upper leg hygiene score: ULHS, hock assessment score: HAS, rectal temperature in °C: RT), and health traits (locomotion score: LS, subclinical mastitis: SubMast). Associations between a continuous rural–urban gradient and phenotypic trait expressions were analyzed via mixed modeling, additionally considering “classic” environmental explanatory variables such as climatic conditions. MY and BCS were higher in urban than in rural areas, associated with reduced SubMast and improved hygiene scores for UddHS and ULHS. Scores for wellbeing indicators HAS and LS were unfavorable for cows in urban areas, indicating poor leg health conditions in that area. In rural areas, least-squares means for RT were quite large, probably due to the scarcity of shading and heat insulation of the barns. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study disentangling phenotypic trait expressions in the context of social-ecological heterogeneity, contributing to a deeper understanding of physiological mechanisms underlying genotype by environment interactions

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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